Edward Janiszewski Park

Hmmmmm…it seems like this should be a really impressive park. We liked all three play structures but…..

Pros: Big, really big; three separate playground areas; tennis, soccer, etc; nice new chalet; bathrooms; parking lot; dog run

Cons: Big, really big; busy; three separate playground areas; a washed-out path from one end to the other; NO FREAKING SHADE; dog owners

We had just left Lake Road Park and were looking for another new-to-us park close by and this looked promising on Google maps.
Parking lot? Yeah! Big? Yeah! Playground(s)? Yeah!

We parked in the lot on the corner of Ernest and Baffin because the chalet was there and we could see the brightly coloured play structure right beside it. In this corner is a spiderweb climber, two big-kid swings, and then separated by the tennis courts is the toddler park with swings, ride-on and the fun climber by Little Tikes that was easy for the little one to maneuver.
There is a staircase AND stepping stones, multiple slides and activity panels. In the surrounding sand is a bulldozer spring rider, a rickety looking sandbox, two baby swings, and an almost dead wooden picnic table. This area isn’t fenced but is down a little incline. 
There was a day camp wrapping up while we were there so we shared the toddler climber with a LOT of teens and pre-teens who almost knocked the little one down. Twice. Good times.
I’d brought the stroller along, thankfully, because the hike up to the other play area is long and hot. They must have realized this because there’s a water fountain on the path along the way! It was like a pit stop on a marathon.

***Hot, so hot. I don’t understand the engineering/thought process behind clear-cutting a park and then the inevitable “damn it, I guess we’ll plant a shrub here later for some shade.”

While we had brought the stroller, apparently they never finished the paths because they are all unpaved and don’t seem like they’re supposed to be like that. So it was a bumpy ride.
Past the fenced dog run (great idea!), to the partially-fenced play area, where of course there were three unleashed dogs running around. What. the. hell?
They finally left and we set about playing.
There’s an interesting big kid climber by Little Tikes that has an challenging curved rope wall, the pommel climber, and a steering wheel panel that completely frustrated the little guy because he could SEE it but couldn’t REACH it, and there was no way I could lift him up. There are also lots of metal rungs and ladders and a twirly slide.

Since he couldn’t do much on the big structure, off we toddled to the large toddler climber which was much easier and complete with stairs and another steering wheel, slides, activity panels, and room to walk around. In the sand are a couple of spring riders including a bulldozer and an ATV and another death-by-splinter picnic table, a large picnic table, and two big and two baby swings. Much sweat and complaining later (and it was even an overcast day) we went back to the car.

A frustrating park for us because it seems like it should be great as all the facilities are there, it just lacks some finishing touches. And a large tree or two. But we’ve been really impressed with Dollard’s other (older) parks so maybe we’ll give this one another chance some day.